Uncertainty-modeling Rules for Situational Awareness (URSA)

To provide improved Collaborative Situation Awareness (CSA) and, ultimately, improve the Warfighter’s operational success, PEO Soldier is developing new equipment, technologies, and tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) that leverage the wealth of information available to Net-Centric Soldiers. Modeling and Simulation can support these efforts by providing the ability to model the effects of new technologies and equipment on Ground Soldiers (GS) and Small Combat Units (SCU) in constructive simulations. An example of such a system is the Infantry Warrior Simulation (IWARS) being developed by RDECOM’s Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center. However, existing simulation-based analysis tools, such as IWARS, do not currently provide a means of modeling uncertainty in situation awareness (SA) and the effect of uncertainty on the decision making process. To address this, we propose to design and demonstrate the feasibility of Uncertainty-modeling Rules for Situational Awareness (URSA), a unified rule-based representation of uncertainty and incomplete information that can be used in constructive simulations to determine the importance of information to critical GS decisions. URSA provides a transparent, understandable, and validatable model of uncertainty coupled with affordable, easy to use, and freely distributable modeling tools that can be readily integrated with constructive simulation environments such as IWARS.